Involving the people to control mosquito breeding
The Hindu
Mosquitoes that breed in domestic settings are responsible for causing malaria and dengue, says expert
As the Corporation’s City Health Officer in Chennai from 2006 to 2014, I was in charge of handling mosquito control activities in the city. At that time, the major complaint of the members of the public was the mosquito menace. The issue came up repeatedly in the Corporation Council, grievance meetings and via petitions to the civic body.
It is common knowledge that 50% of mosquitoes breed in rivers and canals, another 40% in stormwater drains and about 10% breed in individual houses. These mosquitoes that breed in domestic settings are responsible for causing malaria and dengue, and therefore, control requires people’s participation to be successful. At that point in time, it was very difficult and hence we wanted to make it people’s movement in order to get it to work.
The issue that bothered the health officials was the breeding of the other types of mosquitoes — those that breed in clear water only, or in domestic settings — anopheles and aedes — causing malaria and dengue.
The domestic sources of mosquito breeding are open overhead tanks (OHTs), open wells, open sumps, temple tanks, lakes and septic tanks beside household storage of water during water scarcity.
Temporary sources of breeding at each house include old tyres, used disposables like tea cups, tins, coconut shells, unused grinding stones, broken toilet wares (when water collects in them), stagnant water on uneven terrace, tree leaves clogging in the pipe lines and shades etc.
We decided to organise dry days for the OHTs once a week in the housing colonies, in order to take the message of domestic breeding of mosquitoes and the way to prevent them to the public.
Regulatory punitive actions